THE FUTURE of Royston bus station s public toilets has been secured after taxi company Meltax agreed to take over the running of the site. Meltax has signed a deal with North Herts District Council, agreeing that it will be responsible for the toilets fro

THE FUTURE of Royston bus station's public toilets has been secured after taxi company Meltax agreed to take over the running of the site.

Meltax has signed a deal with North Herts District Council, agreeing that it will be responsible for the toilets from now on.

The toilets had been set to close at the end of May, as part of a £170,000 district council improvement plan.

This saw public toilets in Market Hill improved at a cost of £155,000 and £15,000 spent on renovation to the public toilets at The Cross.

The district could said that to improve the toilets at the bus station would cost about £130,000.

A district council spokesman said: "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Meltax, who will be running the toilets."

Veteran campaigner Terry Hutt, of the Royston Pensioners Action group, has been campaigning to keep the toilets open since the potential closure was announced in October 2006.

He said: "It's taken a long while, but we've finally got the result we wanted.

"The location of the toilets means that they are of vital importance to the people of Royston.

"It would have been a disaster if they had closed," he said.

Last October, Cllr Lynda Needham, the portfolio holder for waste and environment, said the district council had been working on a toilets improvement plan costs a total of £750,000.

"We have to close three toilets and the one at Royston bus station is one of them," she said. But the action was criticised by both members of the district council's Royston area committee and Royston Town Council.

Cllr Fiona Hill, chairman of the area committee, said in October: "Public toilets at a bus station are surely vital."

Geoff Dawes, the owner of Meltax, is currently on holiday and was unavailable for comment.